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Saturday, February 13, 2010

E is for Eating

Toddler J has never been a bad eater, as his chubby cheeks confirm. However, he can be a lackadaisical eater, getting distracted and deciding on a whim he doesn't like certain foods that have previously been his favorites. And he has an ENORMOUS sweet tooth and would eat candy or cookies or cupcakes or ice cream over anything else, given the chance. So I am always looking for ways to encourage a more diverse cuisine and more consistent consumption.

Enter the star cookie cutter.

While we were in a cooking store the other day, J picked up a cookie cutter shaped like a star designed to cut sandwiches, so it's very tall and large. While I was paying attention to other things, he managed to demolish the packaging for said star, so I felt duty bound to buy it. The next day, I decided to use it to shape his grilled cheese. J loves grilled cheese sandwiches, but lately has taken to eating just the cheese in the middle and any bread attached to that and discarding all the crusts. The star cutter took off all the crusts and created such a positive reaction when I gave it to J that he ate not one but two whole sandwiches. Hmmm....can this work with other foods? Let's see. Last night I tried it with a potato, onion, ham, and spinach frittata that he has previously eschewed. Guess what? It appears everything tastes good when it's shaped like a star. This morning, I tried star-shaped toast. He likes toast but not really just the center...unless it looks like a star! Genius! I am now looking for any and everything to cut into stars, and I've even busted out my surprisingly extensive collection of cookie cutters (given that I never make sugar cookies) so I can experiment with other shapes and other foods. This may be a whole new world of eating for us. Stay tuned!